The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-03-20

The HIMALAYAN PRISONER
A Posthumous Story by Nine. George Sand.


Translated by Lew Vanderpoole.
of course you have heard of my two brothers.
Henri. the oldest. was almost at the head of the
Royal Geographical Society. Jacques, the
youn gest was eminent as a professor of Ian
qua ges I. the middle brother. was, in every
sense. TIE middle brother; I was nothing at all
IN paytienlar-only a Needless, careless sort of
dog. whS took the world as great foolish thing
that had to make the best Of; and lfe-well.
life joke
This was the state of things before the things
which I going to tell you happened. Since
then things have assumed more sober guise,
though still maintain that no who takes the
things of the present existence seriously Is q
very great fool
Despite my general indifference and lax views.
my TWO distinguished brothers were exceedingly
fond of me. poked fun at their vast erudision
and laughed at their scientific theories This
they seemed to thoroughly enjoy, and at last
came to the conclusion that they regarded me as
u sort Of joke book. l was not in the least put
DOT by this. l was sure tina, my nonsense could
not amuse them as much as their supposed wis
dom amused me-
Being with them so much, and being also
somewhat quick at catching up things, ] gained
quite a smattering of scientific knowledge, which
aside from turning it into ridicule. made no
use of until the occurrence OF the strange things
with which am about dealing.
One spring day the doctors suddenly informed
us that unless Jacques at once taken from
his work his mental energies would be de-
stroyed. Jacques himself excepted, everybody
naturedly, turned to me- and said:
swell, old fellow, We'll have lark, then, a
regular out-aDd-out lark. You shall plan it and
Henri shall go along and act as balance-wheel
Where will we 60 aud what will we dot Speak
out your first impression. and, no matter how
reckless it is, we will obey it"
Lets 60 to the Vale of Cashmere, and thence,
as near as we can get to the summit of the
Hirnalayas," said, and moment later I was
blushine with an overpowerine consciousness of
my own absurd'audacity..
Henri looked grave and dspleased. but
Jacques hailed my proposition with the heartest
laughter.
1--WE will do it," he said. and that settled it.
No one could dissuade him.
II afraid the doctor did not speak in
time" said Henri, when we were alone. His
mind is unsettled"
clenched my hands and then thrusting them
into my pockets. hurried away in silence. 1t
was one beloved brother criticising another be-
loved brother What else, hut what did could
/ have done2 Under any other circumstances l
should have thrasled Henri.
few weeks later were in the delightful
Vale of Cashmere. Already jacques was i'm
proving The beautiful valley and more than
that. the sight of the eternal snow on the Hima-
iayas had the most exhiaratine effect on him.
A rich color OF health came upon his face, and
no was continually in the most buoya spirits.
Perhaps you will admit now that am not
such fool" 1 said to Henri day when the
improvement in Jacques had become marked and
striking.
Il never thought you in any sense fool" he
answered, quickly; "but how was to know that
what you proposed would do him so much
goodl'
When, with our guides and our attendants
we had accomplished about half Of the Difficult,
ascent, Henri came to me and thanked me fol
not only proposing a plan which so manfestly
was benefiting Jacques but which, also, enabled
him to carry out some of his own Biographies
ambitions
As we gradually assembled, leaving behind us
the languid Cashmerean summer and advancins
into the endless winter of the high submits, We
we're all full Of enthusiasm over the novel ex
perience and enraptured with the trernendou:
landscape which we were enabled to overlook
That Is, we were all enraptured, and SO forth
but our guides and attendants, who looked upoI
idiots.
Higher and higher he went but all the Will,
more and more slowly to escape heine harmed
by the constant change of altitude. At last tn,
formation of the mountain and the awful sever
,ity of the weather combined against our goinl
further in the direction intended. We wer
forced to turn back, with the summit We were 81
anxious to reach still q long way above as ant
beyond our efforts.
Reluctantly we gave it up and once more Sc
our faces toward the vale OF Cashmere.
On our way down the mountain we swerved
little from our course in ascending and so cam
under a jutting point of rock which the winds y
centuries had swept free of snow. In the ex
tremest point of this rock was niche about tw
feet square. and in this was an object whic
attracted my attention. The object looke
like vase OF antique pattern. Instsnt
my curiosity was aroused, and, after consider
able efforts. secured the mysterious object. ]
was, unmistakable, so my learned brother assure
me, an ancient Hindoo vase. 1t was covere
with curious piece of metal, upon which wa
engraved a verse from the Koran. and the nam
of a man. who, thanks, also, to my wise broth
ers, found was great savant nearly thor
sand years before. He was, in fact one of til
wisest men of his day: and the strangest fact i
his strange history was that no one knew wher
or when he had died.
The metallic cover bearing the bit of informs
ton, which, under the exceedingly interestin
and peculiar circumstances, was go very star
ling was sealed securely over the top Of tn
vase with q substance Wnoily UNKNOWN TO n
brothers, and which, also. de6ed our most strer
uous efforts at removing it.
The only way into the vase seemed to be
breaking It, and since it might possibly contai
the old fellows ashes. we were not anxious
penetrate its mysteries in that way. We mus
wait until we were once more in the beautifl
C.shmerean valley. and three women eve
awaited the divulgence of q -tautalzing seer
with more reluctance.
We were eventually forced to break open tt
vase after all. the sealing of the cover had bef
so effeetually done.
Its contents, some scraps Of parchment close
written in Sanskrit, relieved US of the unplea
ant fear that we had rihed tomb. But the
Same scraps of parchment contained the most r
markabe personal history of which sver rea
The writing was not all done at once. but
several different periods, at least half a centu
apart Decphere6 and translated it ran thus: